


asphalt at sundown

by noyabeans (snowdrops)



Series: writing with snowdrops (timeskip arc) [9]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, M/M, Shippy Gen, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:28:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23510839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowdrops/pseuds/noyabeans
Summary: Walking home after practice, Nishinoya and Chikara talk about life after high school.Contains spoilers for the current manga arc, up to chapter 386.
Relationships: Ennoshita Chikara & Nishinoya Yuu, Ennoshita Chikara/Nishinoya Yuu
Series: writing with snowdrops (timeskip arc) [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1608889
Comments: 4
Kudos: 43





	asphalt at sundown

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Ennonoya Day!

Dusk is already settled on the shoulders of the night by the time they lock up. The cool evening air is a refreshing change from the stuffiness of the clubroom; Chikara takes a deep breath, feels it clear his head momentarily of the training schedules and training leave applications he’s been working on on Daichi’s behalf since practice ended. Now that the Spring High is over, the third years are stepping down officially next week, but already the team has been invited to a training camp with Nekoma over spring break, and the weight of captaincy has come crashing into Chikara’s arms, along with the realisation that soon they will be the oldest on the team.

“Chikara,” Nishinoya says, voice snapping Chikara out of his stupor. He’s already standing at the top of the steps leading down from the clubroom, looking back at Chikara with a tilted head. “Did you forget something?”

Chikara shakes his head, both as an emphasis and to get rid of the lingering thoughts. “Nah.”

“You’re taking this captain thing way too seriously,” Nishinoya remarks when Chikara falls into step next to him and they start making their way off the school grounds. Caught off-guard by the bluntness, Chikara hesitates a beat too long.

“I’m not,” he says, knowing full well that Nishinoya won’t buy it.

“Are too,” Nishinoya says, stretching his interlaced hands out in front of him, like he’s reaching for something Chikara can’t see. “I know how you are, Chikara. Daichi-san made me your vice-captain for a reason!”

“Are you sure it wasn’t because you’re Suga-san’s favourite?” Chikara says dryly, earning himself an offended sound from Nishinoya — “Hey, that’s mean, Chikara, take that back!” But he doesn’t take it back, because there’s truth in Nishinoya’s words and both of them know it. “I’ll get used to it, give me some time.”

Nishinoya turns to look hard at him then, eyes all fierce and sharp like they always are, but where Chikara would have once found his gaze a piercing brand, he finds it now a comfortable, warm burn. Apparently satisfied with whatever he finds, Nishinoya relents. “If you say so.”

“I saw you and Asahi-san talking earlier,” Chikara says, not wanting to linger on the topic. He’d caught sight of them as they were cleaning the gym, a small smile dancing around Nishinoya’s lips that Chikara didn’t see often.

“Ah,” Nishinoya says, perking up. “We were talking about our plans for the future! He’s going to Tokyo.”

Chikara raises an eyebrow when he doesn’t continue. Life after high school is a topic they haven’t breached before. As haphazard as Nishinoya can be at times, he’s not surprised that Nishinoya already has a plan in mind. “What about you?”

Nishinoya whips around, his smile so brilliant it would be blinding. “I’m gonna go work, save up some money, and see the world outside of Japan.”

Surprised, Chikara glances over at him. “And volleyball?”

“Who knows,” Nishinoya says. His eyes are bright under the pale streetlamps. “Maybe I’ll play it if I get the chance. But I wanna do things outside of volleyball, yanno? There’s so much out there I’ve never done before.”

Picturing Nishinoya in a future away from volleyball is at once as perplexing as the world being turned on its head, but yet as natural as breathing. To Chikara, Nishinoya has always been tied to volleyball: the reassurance at his back when he stepped on the court; thin fingers digging into his forearms, attempting to pull him through the school corridors in the direction of the gym; the glimpses of bruise-littered limbs in the changing room. Nishinoya belongs on the court in the same way that fish belong in the ocean and birds belong in the sky.

But no fish stays in the same waters, and no bird stays in the same piece of sky. They had learnt about migration in class, of creatures travelling in tandem with different life stages and the changing seasons, in search of places that could offer them the things they could not find where they were, and returning eventually — older, with greater and grander plumage, colours painted by the world beyond their hometown.

As much as it sounds improbable, it makes all the sense in the world. For Nishinoya with his larger-than-life presence, with his explosive temper and blazing passion packed into that small body, with those wings that would spread as far as his dreams, the volleyball court would eventually transform into a birdcage someday.

Chikara looks down to find Nishinoya fixing him with an expectant look, as though waiting for him to say something. But it would be presumptuous to think that Nishinoya would ever need Chikara’s opinion on his choices. “Where will you go?”

Nishinoya’s voice carries loud and clear in the stillness of the evening. “Wherever I can.”

The smile that tugs at the corners of Chikara’s lips is entirely involuntary, even as Nishinoya looks at him, voice a little softer and subdued — “D’you think that’s crazy, Chikara?”

“No,” Chikara says honestly, because Nishinoya Yuu can hold the world in his hand and pave a way to the furthest edge of the universe if he so decides. “I had a feeling you would say that.”

Some invisible tension seems to drain from Nishinoya’s shoulders, and he has the audacity to say, with the most dangerously confident smile that threatens to break through all of Chikara’s rationality and reason, “Come with me, Chikara.”

“I’ll go with you to the airport,” Chikara concedes. That seems to be enough for Nishinoya, because his smile only grows wider.

“Every time!”

“Give an inch and you take a mile,” Chikara huffs. “We’ll see about that.”

_**fin.** _

**Author's Note:**

> _It wasn't 'til I met you  
>  _ _That I understood the sky_  
>  _And the way the moon waits for the sun  
>  _ _Waits for the sun to rise_
> 
> **Wherever You Go — Jonas Blue**
> 
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